It looks like contact to me and even if there wasn't most footballers would go down in the situation. A defender has to know better since the ref will call that 95% of the time.
Regardless of whether players would do it or not isn't the point here. The point is it was blatant simulation and embarrassing. Was embarrassing when Herrera did similar against them too. It's just not needed and literally the worst part of the modern game.